The Bow Street Runners have been called London's first professional police force. The force was founded in 1749 by the author Henry Fielding and originally numbered just six. Bow Street runners was the public's nickname for these officers, "although the officers never referred to themselves as runners, considering the term to be derogatory". The Bow Street group was disbanded in 1839.
Famous quotes containing the words bow, street and/or runners:
“Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads, The wind is passing by.”
—Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)
“At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“And Guidobaldo, when he made
That grammar school of courtesies
Where wit and beauty learned their trade
Upon Urbino’s windy hill,
Had sent no runners to and fro
That he might learn the shepherds’ will.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)